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What working with a remote Executive Assistant can do for you
If you’re asking yourself “how do i know when it’s time to hire a remote executive assistant?”, chances are you’ve noticed you’re spending more time on admin tasks & emails than on leading your team and scaling your company. But you’re not sure what EAs can actually do for you, and whether you have enough stuff to delegate to justify the recruiting and onboarding efforts.
Let’s start from the basics:
Executive assistants work with executives in a variety of ways. They take over different tasks, such as booking travel arrangements, managing complex inbox, buying gifts on your behalf and arranging meetings. Their responsibilities may vary depending on your specific needs.
Just as the professional world has expanded due to the remote workforce, so have job responsibilities for executive assistants. The modern executive assistant is no longer just responsible for coffee and photocopies.
In the current world, they can manage your LinkedIn profile, help develop and implement company-wide projects, and work with vendors and suppliers.
There are many reasons behind why C-level executives like you hire an assistant:
- Spend more time with family while their partner is at work.
- Focus on scaling a company that demands a lot of attention.
- Be able to pare down workload.
But how will you know when it’s the best time to hire an executive assistant?
Read along to find out the 5 signs you should look out for to know you’re ready to take the leap.
When to hire an Executive Assistant?
1. You’re all in for scaling your company
Maybe you just closed a new funding round (congratulations!), or revenues are skyrocketing. This calls for a team expansion, more strategic, long-term thinking, and less time spent on administration and logistics.
With growth, the complexity of your life and role increases. When you have a fast-growing startup and feel strapped by your workload, hiring a remote assistant from services like Headroom Assistance can allow you to step back and think about what you need to do to grow your business. The key is to hire an assistant who will help you bring in more value and revenue to scale up.
Prioritize Your Personal Goals
Before hiring a remote assistant, you need to prioritize your goals and objectives. There’s no point in hiring an executive assistant if you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve. When you’re sure that you have work for them that will continue for the long-term, that’s when you should hire an assistant, whether it’s a remote or part-time EA service or a full-time, on-site one.
In this way, you’re freeing up time to spend on the things that are most important to you and actually move the needle:
If being chained to a desk all day is keeping you from doing the things that are meaningful and fulfilling for you, like taking your child to soccer practice, working on a charity project, or pursuing a hobby you love, then it would be wise to hire someone who can help give you a little more freedom.
Delegate Work That Isn’t a Priority
When hiring an assistant, part of your responsibility is learning how to delegate work that you don’t need to do yourself. Or work that you do not have the skillset for, so as to avoid negatively impacting your business. Because why getting stuck doing tasks that someone else can do faster, better and for cheaper?
As your company grows, you may find there are specific tasks that drag down productivity or even the quality of your work.
Admin work, invoicing, chasing suppliers, doing desk research and answering every single email… If this is the case, it’s time to delegate those tasks to someone who can do them for you.
2. Your Work-Life Balance is Far from Balanced
At some point in your career life, you might reach a stage where you want to commit more to family and friends, your partner, or social activities. You shouldn’t have to choose between running a successful business and being present in your close ones’ lives. Hiring a remote assistant from Headroom Assistance can be one way to achieve a work-life balance.
Virtual assistants and EAs like Headroom Assistance can also help you with personal tasks. This enables you to stay on top of birthday presents, anniversaries and festivities, greeting cards, and weekend gateways. You should ensure your EA knows your key dates and anniversaries so they can remind you and make such days memorable for you.
3. You’ve Sold Several Successful Businesses, and You’re Now Exiting to Focus on the Next Phase of Your Professional Life
What will that look like? After a successful career life, the next phase of your professional life can be enjoyable and dutiful. Look at serial entrepreneur and tech investor Charlotte: after various successful exits, she now focuses in different activities such as
- Mentoring
- Becoming a board member
- Joining a foundation.
The sky is the limit.
Whatever your next steps are, you’re at a stage where your well-earned time and independence should be guarded, and an EA can be the gatekeeper and ensure you focus on the most relevant and promising opportunities that are worth your time.
Fly Solo, Not Alone
When you’re not part of a company anymore, you need to go back to taking care of everything by yourself. As an executive, your company might have given you a PA, an office manager, and access to the IT team. Now, you have the complete freedom to choose who to work with. Make sure your assistant understands your needs, standards, and expectations and can support you in reaching your goals.
Unsure how an EA is different from an office manager? Here are the key differences.
Treat Yourself
Allow yourself room to breathe, plan and consider, and enjoy what you’ve built. It would help if you made time to cut through the “noise” of irrelevant stuff and really focus on unlocking your potential and growth.
4. You’re Traveling a lot and You’re Transforming Your Business into a Remote-First Team
Time to embrace the remote revolution: say bye to being tied to an office desk, to high overheads and welcome to diverse, international teams, flexible working hours and digital nomadism.
Embrace Flexibility
With remote EAs, you can get the support you need even if you’re always on the go. No need to worry about setup and travel and being available or reachable all the time, or about high office overheads.
At Headroom, we’re big advocates of the remote revolution and we’ve developed our own tools to make sure we provide executives with top-notch support, no matter where they are.
For example, our network of EAs use proprietary software that allows them to securely share knowledge with and learn from each other. When you start the week in New York and finish it in Paris, your EA team will match your area and time zone. Pretty cool right?
5. You Want to Get More Things Done and Unlock Your Potential
If you want to regain control of your time, avoid distractions and focus on being more productive, it’s the perfect time to hire an executive assistant. You may also want to redefine your work-life balance. But you don’t want to forego opportunities that could move the needle on your goals and career development.
That’s why you should look for someone who can help you integrate your professional and personal goals. The number of C-suite positions varies by firm, depending on variables such as a company’s size, mission, and sector. Appointing EAs from Headroom Assistance for the C-suite executives at your company could speed up your company’s growth and increases the chance of success.
Wondering if you’re ready for an executive assistant? Your already know the answer
We all have different goals, ambitions, and challenges.
However, if you’re an entrepreneur, it’s likely that your business goals and personal goals are closely aligned. You want to focus on things that you’re the best at and can bring in the most revenue for your company. In order to do that, you need someone to take care of the rest.
Headroom Assistance offer premium Executive Assistance service to clients. If you want someone else to manage your calendar and emails, someone who knows you and how much time you need to finish work on projects, someone who can keep track of projects, someone who can keep an eye on what needs your attention so that they don’t fall through the cracks, then Headroom Assistance might just be what you need.
